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So, this is cool. Really, really cool.
Fiber artist/ MICA guest teacher extrodinaire John Krynick brought the OSLoom project to my attention a few months ago after putting up with a semester of me flailing about in non-weaving classes trying to make art that was not woven. Thanks John, for understanding my frequent nonsense and giving me some good thinking material to work with.
Here we have an open source Jacquard loom. To be honest, I’m not all that familiar with Jacquard looms. Wikipedia tells me that it was an invention of 1804, and I know that mechanical looms have come a long way from punchcards to modern day computer software. I understand in theory how they work (control of individual warp threads makes for more intricate weaves), but maybe I’m too much of a traditionalist to truly appreciate the wonder that must be the ability to weave with photographic precision. I like suffering through tedious hours of pick-up, thanks! Brocade and Damask are pretty, but unfortunately my experience with Jacquard weaving has been primarily cheesily woven photographs that are more like cheap afghans than works of art. Which is what tends to happen when you take an art form or a traditional practice and make it so anyone can play.
Computers make our lives easier. Fact. But are they good for us? I don’t know how to do fractions, because in high school I hated math and my calculator could do fractions. We know this story. With each generation we become more and more dependent on technology. Digital technology. And what this essentially does is make things more accessible to the masses.
Maybe it’s the coffee I had this morning, but reading about computer-controlled looms makes me a little uneasy.
What I love about weaving is the process. I love that a loom is a wooden computer, and that I enter the information and the loom reads it. It knows.I remember my first weaving lesson from Chrissy Day. She just kept telling me not to worry about it, that the loom would work everything out, and I learned to trust the loom and the process. Lesson two: once you make a mistake there’s a good chance you won’t make it again. I love that there are user errors and mechanical errors, and I can fix both of them because I know my loom inside and out. I love that I can make something so incredible and intricate with my hands without plugging anything into a wall. Exactly the way it was done in the olden days. This is, of course, how I see weaving and what purpose it serves me as an art form. For me, the idea of a Jacquard loom is counter-intuitive because it removes the weaver from a good part of the process significant to me: detailed hand manipulation and problem solving for imagery in process (that is to say, as I’m weaving). No matter how much creativity and hard work goes into the preparation of Jacquard weaving, I just can’t get past the presence of the digital in the production, not to mention its origins in commerical work; I have a hard time seeing Jacquard weaving as a satisfying studio practice.
And just so you we’re clear, I’m a bit skeptical of weaving software in general, so this isn’t an attack on Jacquard necessarily, but a questioning of the presence of the digital age in a traditionally no-electricity-needed kind of thing.
Like I said, I’m a traditionalist, and I understand my viewpoint might seem a bit, well, close minded. Get with the times, Rachel! you may say. It’s a tricky dilemma for me, and I’ve gone a bit off the track of the OSLoom project. The project, led by go-getter Margarita Benitez, would make Jacquard looms (which retail at upwards of tens of thousands of dollars) infinitely more accessible to your every day weaver. As a student who knows just how expensive any old loom can be that is a beautiful, beautiful thing. The term “Open Source” applied to weaving is also interesting to me. It indicates positive steps forward for a craft that has seemingly been left behind in the storm of more readily available crafts like knitting and crochet. However, as someone a little wary of the DIY movement and the explosion of craft in today’s market (let’s face it, there’s a lot of beautiful stuff, and there’s a lot of crap), I can’t help but wonder what this new wave of weaving means for the craft I’ve worked so hard to develop. If anyone can go out and get an OSLoom, plug in some data and get to weaving then how will my work, for example, with its high production costs, stand up to something woven with the aid of a computer?
Tell me what you think. What are your experiences weaving on a Jacquard loom? How has technology changed your weaving practice? What role should technology play in traditional craft (weaving and beyond)?
